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Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

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Zenbeast said:
Ah yes, first we clear the chaff, and then we gank the healer/utility in the back! At this point, once we clear the buffs off the minions, they probably will all just insta-die, leaving us just the mini-bosses.
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We don't want to clear them all out. At least not until they are out of Qi. Makes more sense to just buff up more defenses. Get the party started.
Ayashi said:
I think it bares remembering that we haven't used PLR yet...
(also CDE)
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Yes. I thought that we would have more time to set up.
 
veekie said:
Wait, if they have Impure Cultivators down here then they must have swarmed the Antlion nest to loot it right?
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Not sure.
It doesn't seem to me like the antlion nest would be nearly exotic enough for them to be worth this kind of expenditure and, even if they had not planned to encounter us here and lose all these beasties, it seems like way too much work to move this much chaff around just to loot one antlion nest.

What I'm thinking is that they might have the mirrored version of Suyin's motivation.
They noticed the new passage to the surface and moved to take advantage of it, which accidentally pushed the antlion in our direction.
And now they're attacking because they want to loot us. The temerity!
 
I really regret our sword since it seems like it can't score kills even in perfect conditions for it :/

I loved the prose in this update, though!
 
The odd part is:
-The Reds are all generic rat swarms. Too stupid to even try to avoid a deadly environmental hazard.
-The Yellows are diverse, they look more like lab experiments than anything else, with the themes showing they came from the same basic creature but are broadly different.
-The Greens on the other hand are much more similar to each other, use tools and that looks like a Support Cultivator with two Production cultivators
 
I still don't think these are the Gnawing Ones. The Gnawing Ones are probably some Winter Baba Yaga tier entity, or just below.

Rather, these skaven/troglodyte hybrids feel like warped animals/spirit beasts which, as they go further in corruption, the more they grow in complexity, sapience and power.
 
veekie said:
-The Greens on the other hand are much more similar to each other, use tools and that looks like a Support Cultivator with two Production cultivators
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There was also the huge thing with 11 eyes though.

Horium said:
I still don't think these are the Gnawing Ones. The Gnawing Ones are probably some Winter Baba Yaga tier entity, or just below.

Rather, these skaven/troglodyte hybrids feel like warped animals/spirit beasts which, as they go further in corruption, the more they grow in complexity, sapience and power.
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Is this 'Gnawing Ones' idea coming from something in-story or a reference to something else?
 
George said:
Is this 'Gnawing Ones' idea coming from something in-story or a reference to something else?
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Yeah, it's coming from the Elder Jiao interlude where he talks about the Gnawing Ones and is presumably cutting them down in swathes. Right in the same spot where this Chasm is.

Additionally, he was talking about how they do bargains for their tools and assistance if I recall correctly. Given that these are the only spirit beasts we've seen use tools, and given their actions being unlike any other spirit beast we've seen, there is a non-zero chance that what we are facing are the actual gnawing ones or some sort of subordinates to them.

Here specifically.
yrsillar said:
There did remain some advantages to physicality, Jiao mused. "Yes, I suppose so," he replied, the majority of his attention still spread through the newly formed basin, exterminating the plague mutated spirits and fauna. It was a little irritating that the barbarian child had been slain by an arrow, death imprints pulled from a bow were less clear than those of a blade. "Gnawing Ones, hm," it had been clear enough to see pale, long faced figures loping in the dark, and a great deal of teeth, flesh and spirit offered in return for the tools of vengeance.
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George said:
I really regret our sword since it seems like it can't score kills even in perfect conditions for it :/
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Our Sword doesn't really do the whole 'killing' thing. It's primary purpose is to debuff enemy Spiritual Defenses, allowing for our other Arts - like FSS and FVM - to hit, and to drain their Qi.

I, personally, would have preferred a more direct-damage sort of Domain Weapon, but I do like the aesthetics of our current one.
 
Hmm

@yrsillar

Now that the actual fight's going on... Ling Qi is going to remember that she can isolate serious enemies from their allies to cut off any buff chains, right?

That one support artist there would be a real headache if she forgets that she can nullify him with the single-target Elegy variant.
 
Raising Kittens said:
Our Sword doesn't really do the whole 'killing' thing. It's primary purpose is to debuff enemy Spiritual Defenses, allowing for our other Arts - like FSS and FVM - to hit, and to drain their Qi.

I, personally, would have preferred a more direct-damage sort of Domain Weapon, but I do like the aesthetics of our current one.
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this part?
yrsillar said:
On hit inflicts a penalty of 2 on Spiritual Avoid, which stacks up to five times and lasts a Short time. If a target has three or more stacks on them at any time suffer a loss of qi with severity based on Spiritual Armor.
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When would a penalty of 2 per hit matter? Have we ever put 3 stacks on anything? The +15 to penetration seems way more relevant than that and I'm not convinced other people's flying swords don't also have that kind of buff. My impression was that a lot of its power is tied up in the AoE, which never seems to accomplish much.

E: Maybe most of its power is in the buffs to penetration and hit, though, in which case I guess I just need to think about it differently.
 
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George said:
I really regret our sword since it seems like it can't score kills even in perfect conditions for it :/
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Yup, Meizhen even advised we should take up a very killy one, as we lack that, and there was that absolutely bonkers black razor one.

The sword and our so-far-useless domain are my biggest two gripes with LQ's build.

Most of the other better swords we've seen actually do powerful, useful things. Ours is a generic buff we could get from an art. Ji Rong has a full restore, Liling's breaks buffs and things, Best Snek's I think automatically poisons you.

To be fair, it seemed to be killing the chaff coming from one of the corridors, so that's something.
 
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George said:
this part?


When would a penalty of 2 per hit matter? Have we ever put 3 stacks on anything? The +15 to penetration seems way more relevant than that and I'm not convinced other people's flying swords don't also have that kind of buff. My impression was that a lot of its power is tied up in the AoE, which never seems to accomplish much.

E: Maybe most of its power is in the buffs to penetration and hit, though, in which case I guess I just need to think about it differently.
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Ok, so first I think I should point out that our sword was apparently managing to hold one of the tunnels before we pulled it back, which suggests a decent level of killing ability.

That being said, it is true, as a number of us have noted, that our domain weapon kinda suffered in the system change. The buffs we wanted it for last year became much less needed (as well as arguably being weakened), and the stacking debuff is honestly kinda obnoxious, being composed of a whole lot of tiny effects that should do nothing individually.

To say nothing of @AbeoLogos's argument that a domain weapon that buffs us is kinda counter to the whole domain weapon system in the first place.
 
George said:
I really regret our sword since it seems like it can't score kills even in perfect conditions for it :/

I loved the prose in this update, though!
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To be fair, it probably needs some art support to really be relevant. Empowering it through darkness meridians is all nice and stuff, but short of that we really didn't do anything to enhance this attack vector.
It's a bit like using our bow, without our Arts relevant to it i'm pretty sure it'd be mostly useless...
 
These guys seem like slivers from MTG with their stacking hoard auras and all, good thing they aren't hyper evolution beast like Slivers.
 
Alectai said:
Still need to claim it.

If they're Chu Song level, we can probably take them at Ling Qi's current level of being spooled up. If they're stronger, we can at least hold for a while, but we need to get our loot and then book it before something scarier comes in, attracted by the sound and smell of so many dead torsos.
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We need our flying sword back as well
 
Erebeal said:
Ok, so first I think I should point out that our sword was apparently managing to hold one of the tunnels before we pulled it back, which suggests a decent level of killing ability.
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Yeah, I don't know quite what to make of 'stymied' or just what degree of injury blood leaking from ears is meant to represent.
yrsillar said:
With a mental tug, she pulled back on her flying sword, recalling her blade from where it stymied the flow of beasts in the other tunnel.
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yrsillar said:
In response, Ling Qi's twisted blade shot out from the mist, letting loose a discordant wail as it soared down the nearer tunnel, sending the beasts within shying back, brackish black blood leaking from their ears.
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Erebeal said:
That being said, it is true, as a number of us have noted, that our domain weapon kinda suffered in the system change. The buffs we wanted it for last year became much less needed (as well as arguably being weakened), and the stacking debuff is honestly kinda obnoxious, being composed of a whole lot of tiny effects that should do nothing individually.

To say nothing of @AbeoLogos's argument that a domain weapon that buffs us is kinda counter to the whole domain weapon system in the first place.
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I think it's fine for it to be weird compared to most domain weapons given the materials and professional craftsmanship. I suppose I mostly wish it weren't trying to do so many things so it could just do one or two things well.
 
TotallyNotEvil said:
Ah, but that's the thing.

Clearly, these guys look like a consciously synergistic team. But once one goes down, the remaining two becomes exponentially easier to take out.

Take the mass buffer, the mooks become just annoying Qi batteries and we can throw down with the other two, who look like a disabled and a blaster.

Most importantly perhaps, reinforcements have stopped, we are nearly fully buffed up (I think Ten Rings is missing?), full health and certainly full Qi.

Their horde didn't whittle us down. It recouped our set up cost, instead.

Three creepy greens are no laughing matter. But neither is a fully buffed Ling Qi, in the dark, with a horde to drain Qi from.
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Unfortunately it's not as simple: buffer know quite well that he is priority target, that he still lives is mark of his (ironically) healthy survival instinct; our flying sword stuck somewhere and most of these things qi is useless to us, to impure, it worst now because we have less and less batteries as time comes; and lastly we didn't know if there would be more Green beasts or if they have there own stealth expert that right now crawling to our friend.:evil:
 
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Hopefully Li isolates the buffer cultivator with the Elegy single target variant.

This fight will be much easier without him in particular around.
 
yrsillar said:
"Where do I put my order in for one of your talismans anyway?"

Li Suyin's expression grew bashful. "A-ah, well I should have the first production batch done in a month or so? I will be sure to give you one then."
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Just noticed this in a reread. I guess narratively there could have been unexpected delays, but will we be getting one of these talismans this/next month @yrsillar?
 
I mean it makes sense for a level 1 domain weapon to be weak. As we upgrade our domain the weapon should get better. Right now we are near the strongest we can be with our domain weapon as weak as it is. Once our domain gets upgraded both our domain and domain weapon will get a power spike to be a better match for our current strength. I am not super concerned about it at all.
 
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